Apparatus foe mounting guns



(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheej; 1.

J. STRAUSS.- APPARATUS FOR MOUNTING GUNS.

o. 547,507. Patented O0L8, 1895.

2 Sheets, Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

APPARATUS STRAUSS.

FOR MOUNTING GUNS.

No. 547,507. Patented 0015.8,1895.

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NITED ST a res- PATENT Fi ms, 7

APPARATUS FOR MOUNTING GUNS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 547,507, dated Octobera, 1895.

Application filed January 4, 18 95.

T0 on whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH STRAUSS, an ensign in the Unitcd States Navy,and attached to the Bureau of Ordnance,'at Washington, inthe District ofColumbia, have invented cen tain new and usefullmprovements in Methodsof and Apparatus for Mounting Guns; and I do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and'e'xact description of the invention,such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same. I

My invention relates-to improvements in methods of and apparatus formounting guns. on their carriages or other supports, so that with asmall expenditure of energy theymay be readily elevated or depressed. Inthe mountings now generally in use the gun is suspended on trnnnjions,which may be either on the gun itself or on the oscillating slide inwhich the gun recoils, and the weight of the gun is generally supportedby the circular bearing-plate or trunnion-seat placedbeneaththe'trunniou. and forming part of the-gu'n carriage. The pressure onthis hearing is ordi narily exerted by the lower element'of thecylindrical trunnion upon which the weight of the gun is supported, andsince the support,- ingelement of the trunnionie n'otusu'ally in theline of recoil there is a tendency of the trunnion to roll backward whenthe gun is fired, causing the muzzle of the gun to tilt u-pward, andthus causing a heavy strain on the elevating-gear. Moreover, since theweight of the gun supported bythetrunnionsis supported on a line ofbearings eccentric to the center of gravity of the gun and below thesame it will be seen that the larger the trunnious the lower 'willbe thepoints of support of the gun, and hence the greater energywill berequired under existing conditions to elevate and depress the gun.Moreover, sincein order to secure the necessary strength large gunsrequirelarge trunnions this difficulty becomes greater in operatinglargeguns th n in operating small ones. It the trunnions kf the gun could bemade very small, the mornent-arm of the friction caused by elevating anddepressing would be much reduced. In this method the arm-at which thefriction acts is practically reduced to zero, thereby reducing the workof elevating and depressing to sum no. 583,830. (No model.)

merely that of overcoming the inertia of the mass. g

Reference is had to the accom panying drawings, in which the'same partsare indicated by the same letters throughout the several views.

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of -a.

gun fitted with my improved device. Fig. 2

slide in the oscillating slide B, which slide is provided with thetrunnions G, which are.

journaled between the circular plates or truni which is provided with abandA, adapted to nion'seats d and the cap-squares (Z' of the carriageD.

The particular character of the carriage is immaterial, as thehereinafter-described invention may be readily applied'to any of themounts ,for heavy guns. The trunnions C are tapped with screwthreads cto receive the screw e, rigidly at,-

tached to or integral with the plate E, which plate is provided with aknife-edge a, so adjusted as to be: at approximately the exact center ofthe face of the trunnion. The said plate E is held against turning bythe setscrew e,- screwed into the face of the trunnion. The knife-edge erests upon the hardened plate f,-.let into the block F,'which block-i srecessed on its bottom and near its ends, as at f, to receive the headshot the liftingscrews' Hand 1-1. These screws are provided withscrew-threadsh', which engage in the screw-threaded sleeves or nuts Kand K, fast to the gun-carriage. The said screws H and II are providedwith angular heads h 'to be turned by a wrench; but capstan-bars orother equivalent devices may be provided, it desired, and are alsoprovided with lock-nutsh to lock the said screws at the desiredposition. In practice these two screws are so adjusted that a thinsheetof paper or'other gage can be passed between the base oftlietrunnion'and the base-ring d, when the weight-of the gun will besupported by means .of the knife-edge i on e on the hardened plate f.It-will readily be seen that when solifted clear of thetrunnionknifeedge e will readily yield to the said? '10 pressure andthus prevent am y permanent disarran ement of or any injury to the said'knifedgeortotheplatefi Affertheconnterrecoil the gun will once more besupported upon the knife-edge and may be elevated or depressedas before.The herein-described trunnion attachment renders it possible to work theelevating-gear of very heavy guns by hand with sufficient rapidity,which is a great desideratum. While any form of ele-' vating-ge'ar maybe used, I preferthat shown in Fig.1, in which L is a segmental rack,struckwith' the same center asthe trunnion 0. M represents a piniongearing in the said rack and mounted on the shaft N, which-is journaledin the bracket S at the side of-thef gun-carriage. The worm+wheel P isfast on the said shaft M and is turned by the worm Q,"fast on the shaftR, which is also jourualed in the said bracket S and is revolved by'theo hand-wheel R. While the elevating-gear need only be inadefligh't forpurposes. ofoperation by hand-power, it must be made strong enoughtostand-the shifting of the weight of the gun on recoil and also theshock of recoil.

' guu'pn the approximate mathematical axis of the trunnions the gun maybe elevated or depressed with great facilityyand that the error known asjump, allowed for in most rangetables',,is largely obviatedi It will beseen that'I practically provide two sets of trunnions, the smallertrunuions projecting from thelarger and, supporting the weight of thegun when'the gun is run out or 'in the ini tial position, and the largertrunnions-taking up the shock of recoil.

In orderto make the bearing-surface ot'the smaller trunnions as small aspossible and at the same time have the requisite strength, I preferinstead'of making the smaller trunuions' concentric with the larger to 7mak'e only the point of support of the smaller trunnions concentric withthe larger and to place the mass of metalneces'sa'ry to give the -req-'to any such guns now inusewithout; necessi- It will be seen that-by thussuspending the I uisite strength above this point of support. .55 Theeffect of this is to practically have the gun pivoted for elevating ordepressing upon a'trunnio'n of inappreciable diameter, while forresisting the shock of discharge the ordinary trunnions are provided. ItwilLbe obvi-' one that the hereindesoribed auxiliary tru-n nion's may beapplied either to guns having trunniens or to the trunnions ofoscillating slides, and that they may be readily applied 6 tatingexpensive changes in their mounts: s

Theseand the other advantages of the hereii -described apparatus willreadily suggest themselves' to any one skilledin the art.

It will be obvious that various modifications of-the herein-describedapparatus-might be'made which could be used without departing from, thespirit of my invention. Having thus described my invention, What Iclaim, and-desire to secure by Letters'Patent of the United States, is-

1. In a gun mounting, thecombination with a gun, and trunnions to standthe shock of recoil, of knife edges secured to said trunnions to sustainthe weight of the gun, and supports for said knife edges, substantiallyas described. I r

2. In a gun mounting, the combinatiouwith a gun, and trunnions adaptedto stand the shock orrecoil, or knife edges secured to said trunnions,to sustain the weight of the gun,- and vertically-adjustable supportsforsaid knife edges, substantially as described.

3. In agun mounting, the combination with a gun, and trunnions to standthe shock of recoil, of knife edges secured to said'trunnions, blockssupporting said knife edges, and screws connected .tothe gun carriageand adjustably' supporting-said block, substantially asdescribed: t v 44;In agun mounting, the combination with a gun, ofknife edges whichsupport the same at approximately the point about which the gug isturned for elevating and depressing, an

bearings onthe recoil of the gun. In testimony whereof I afiix mysignature in presence of two witnesses.

JOSEPH STRAUSS. Witnesses: t 7 B. A. FIsKE,

- CHAs. L. HUGHES.

meanswhich limit the longitudinal movetoo I -ment ofsaid knife edgesrelative to-their

